Savs1027

Thanks Everyone! I just heard back from the resort that the Pool Deck is also available so I guess I need to decide soon if we want beach or pool deck.  .so of course any opinions are appreciated.  I also am glad I ended up at this resort over the Dreams Cancun. It was a bit of an ordeal having to change everything over, but worth it I believe. Congrats all. 

I highly recommend the pool deck It looks amazing in the pictures!! 

Anyone having their ceremony at the Gazebo...what are your thoughts on the privacy?  I'm getting mixed impressions from the pictures and videos.  Some make the area look more private then others. Do insight on how they section off this area for ceremonies?

We had our ceremony at the gazebo and while it wasn't private, I didn't notice the people at all. I didn't realize there were so many people watching until I saw our video. But they do keep it blocked off so no one will interrupt or walk through anything. We saw about 5 or 6 weddings while we were there and even on the beach, they weren't private. Same with reception - you are outdoors so there will be people around watching.

Any opinions on photography? I've heard the Anel and Santiago are great at the resort, but I've seen some great pricing and packages from outside photographers as well.  Looking at Juan Navarro and Ivan Luckie. . any thoughts? So many great photographers. 

We used Anel and I really have nothing but excellent things to say about her. And the resorts prices for photography in my opinion are great. She was with us almost all day and made us both feel so comfortable. And we did the TTD the next day. A llink to our pics are in my sig.

Hey Brides! Is anyone getting married anytime between April 25-30th?? Hubby and I will be back at DRC for vacation and I'd love to see y'alls weddings! 

We were married there 12/17/12 - loved it so much we're going back  

I am trying to sell my chair sashes and table overlays.... 

They are from Wedding Linens Direct and are the color Jade. 

I have 40 chair sashes (http://www.weddinglinensdirect.com/8xemorchsaja.html) which retail at $67.20 

I have 6 table overlays (http://www.weddinglinensdirect.com/85emorovja91.html) which retail at $79.68. 

I would prefer to sell them all to the same person. I will sell them all together for $50 (plus shipping) 

They are all in good condition - there are a few that are "scrunched" I'm not sure how else to describe it. It looks like they just need to be pressed maybe. If you want pictures of those particular ones I can send them to you. 

If you are interested, please EMAIL me at savanaheryan@@gmail.com. I'm not on the boards very much anymore, so email will be the best way to reach me! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeashAC 

Was anyone told they cannot exchange cocktail hour for some kind of credit towards extra dinner plates?

I could of sworn I've read numerous ladies that were able to switch it out for credit. So frustrating if your having a lot of guests :/
Destination wedding was supposed to save us some money.

My wedding coordinator (who was switched 3X already) is now Claudia and she has informed me I can't switch it for any credit.

We changed ours out! We got a $520 credit to use towards our extra people over 20. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmyss 
 

Hi everyone, 

 

We are getting married in one month whoo whoo!

 

We are having our reception on the pool deck but have not requested to have more lighting (hanging paper lanterns, lights under the table, bamboo poles with hanging lanterns etc). Do you think they are necessary? will there be enough light without adding the extra lighting options?

 

Thanks, 

Emmy 

What time is your reception? It gets dark really early so if you're reception is pretty late, it will pitch black! Our photographer recommended that we do our first dance right as the recpetion started so she could get decent pictures. And we had a bunch of extra lighting. The standard lights are the tall white poles. I wanted more light so we did the bamboo poles, lights under the tables, lanterns on the tables, and the dance floor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZachJess2013 


Doesn't the beach bar close at like 6p tho?

yes, our ceremony was at 3:30 because it was in december. During the summer that probably wouldn't work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceciile 
 

jillann13-

 

I saw some pictures of the Pool Terrace and it looks just a great as the Pool Deck (at least to me)!

 

I also am looking to substitute the Cocktail Hour and I read somewhere on these forums that they were able to get a credit of ~$800, but I'm sure it's something you'll have to negotiate with your wedding coordinator. You can apply this credit towards dinner or costs of the wedding. I believe some brides just told their guests to go to a nearby bar because everywhere is all inclusive.

 

Hope this helps

They will give you the credit of whatever the cocktail hour price is in the wedding guide x 20. 

We had our guests meet at the beach bar while we took pictures.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceciile 
 

I just saw your personal website and your wedding details. Wow! Thanks for all the shared tips/pictures/help I love it and can't wait. Hoping to send our save the dates out this weekend and our friend is setting up the website for us. Can't wait, 10 months will come super fast!

thank you!!!  

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceciile 
 

Thanks for the help Savs1027! I was thinking of nixxing the Cocktail Hour as well and using that credit towards dinner. And good to know that the bouquets can be cheaper than $100. 

 

Your wedding looked gorgeous! Thanks for the visuals on what a reception on the deck would look like. I love having the infinity pool as the background. I noticed that you also opted for the dance floor.. do you think I would need that? Or is the deck good enough.

Thank you! You definitely don't need the dancefloor on the pool deck. That was one of the reasons I picked the pool deck in the beginning - you didn't need to pay for a dance floor. We decided to add the dance floor about a month before the wedding after seeing so many pictures with it. I loved the way it looked and it added so much lighting since it was so dark outside. But you can definitely do without it if you're on a budget.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBarks 

Past January brides who had your reception on the beach or pool deck - did it get windy or cold that close to the water at night?

My wedding was dec 17 and the weather was perfect!!! Well, except for the rain on our wedding day during our reception, but the temperature was perfect the entire trip, including at night. I wore short, strapless or spaghetti strap dresses every night and was completely fine. Our reception was on the pool deck and it was a great temp too!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceciile 
 

Just confirmed my wedding at Dreams Riviera for August 2, 2014 Saturday!! We're booked for the gazebo at 5pm and then the deck at 8pm. I have a ton of questions so if anyone out there is reading, let me know!

 

We actually had originally booked Now Jade for our wedding but decided to cancel it once we heard Dreams was a lot better. 

 

I just received my budget planner and I love how organized it is, but hating the "total" cost up top

 

Does anyone know if they preferred the beach location for reception? I've seen their pictures for it and it looks amazing, the deck.. not so much : I really wanted the pool terrace but it's not available on Saturdays. 

 

Do we really need a cocktail hour? Couldn't our guests just venture to one of the nearby bars for drinks? Right now for 75 guests, it costs $1800.

 

Did anyone order flowers from an outside vendor? $100/bridesmaid bouquets sounds ridiculous.

 

Help!!

Our reception was on the pool deck and usually that's the most popular spot over the beach and pool terrace. Maybe you're getting them backwards? Here's our slideshow and you can see if it's the same. http://171212ryan.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/#/ryan/

If you have to choose between Terrace and Beach I think I would pick beach  

We used the hotel florist and our BM bouquets were only $60/each.

We also didn't have a cocktail hour. We used the credit towards dinner and had all of our guests gather at the beach bar while we took pictures. That's where we had the mariachi band play.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabrina26 

Hey! Iam getting married at DRC Nov 22. Yours is so close congrats! What are you doing for centerpieces? Iam bringing lanterns down and votives, however iam getting nervous with having to bring them down. Iam so torn between shipping or having family help with carry ons. I have so much stuff to bring iam starting to panic lol

I would definetly bring it all with you in suitcases! Either on this thread or another one on this site when I first started planning, someone talked about shipping their stuff and it getting lost. Between sitting in customs or the hotel losing it or using it for other weddings, I just don't think it's a smart idea! We had 10 suitcases plus a bunch of carry ons split between 6 people and it was a breeze going through customs!

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmyss 
 

Savs,

 

What did you pay for the centerpieces?

 

Thanks,

Emmy

I think they were like $65 each. But we had 2 included because we did the ultimate package. We were able to move the ceremony flower arrangment over to the reception. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judany 
 

Hello Everyone,

 

I had my wedding here back in May and it was great but I wanted to let everyone know that I have recently been hit with credit card fraud.  I used my credit card to pay the wedding partially as well as sign up for the unlimited vacation club, using the same card.  The charges were over $4300 plus the foreign transaction fees my CC charges.  This is unfortunate as i brought my CC because i didn't want to bring that much cash with me to Mexico.  I'm almost certain it had to do with the unlimited vacation club as they had contract/paperwork with the information vs the wedding charges which they swipped the card in front of me.  I have closed the card but wanted to give everyone a heads up.  I also saw on the UVC facebook page another person had credit card fraud at another AMResort, I believe it was a Dreams resort.

this happened to us too! But we only used the card to pay for the wedding - that's it! We opened the card strictly to pay for the wedding (it was a southwest card that we got free miles on and no foreign transaction fee). The only place we EVER used the card was at Dreams so we know it was someone there that stole our #. Luckily the credit card company recognized it and we weren't out any money at all, but it was still a pain. Thanks for putting this out there so everyone could know about it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jillann13 
 

These pics are amazing.....who was the photographer and also did you bring all the signs/props and decorations with you or did they have them at the resort?

I'm not sure if you are talking about my pics or not since it wasn't linked to anything.... But since i posted them recently, it was Anel with adventure photos. 

We took all the decorations down with us except the flowers/centerpieces. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jillann13 


awesome thanks!! What area did you have for cocktails and reception? We chose the Jacuzzi area foe cocktails and are struggling with reception location. Am pretty confused as to why there is a $1000 fee for the oceans restaurant location and what does that include.....do we still need to get a dance floor/DJ or should we just go to the resort club?

We didn't have a formal cocktail hour. We just had our guests meet at the beach bar. Our reception was on the pool deck and then moved inside to the ballroom when it started raining. I don't know anything about Oceana because that wasn't an option for a reception location when we got married there. 

I highly recommend the dance floor and DJ - the dancefloor changed the look of our pictures and reception so much! The DJ even though I was completely satisfied with him still was worth the $$. 

Originally Posted by lynseyloo0812 

 

How did everyone get their decor/favors down to dreams? Trying to figure out if shipping it or bring it down in my suit cases would be better. Advice??

don't ship anything!! I've heard that it is not recommend due to customs and it's not guaranteed to get there. We took everything with us down in suitcases. And we had ALOT of stuff! 

Originally Posted by Britt N Adam 

 

Hello ladies, 

 

I haven't posted much here, but have read through most of it. As my planning is in full swing I have a couple questions. 

 

We are getting married on Nov 4th, 2013 and have opted for the Dreams of Love package. Does anyone know if I can not do the cocktail hour and get credit back for it to use for a different service? We are just having a small (immediate family only) wedding, so the cocktail hours seems to be a waste for 12 people. I know I have read that other have been allowed to but the wedding planner that we are now working (third one)  with has told me this is not an option.  

 

Also for those who have had everything on the beach (ceremony and reception), what have you found works best for lighting? 

 

Thanks in advance. 

You can only trade out for the same type of item. Like flowers for flowers and food for food. So, you could only get a credit for the cocktail hour if you put it towards dinner. 

Originally Posted by Sabrina26 

 

Hey ladies!! Is anyone hiring outside videographer ? Or using Dreams?

We used Dreams for what was included in the Ultimate Package and StoryMix Media for additional.  I posted a link to my videos a few weeks back. Let me know if you didn't see them and I'll post again

Originally Posted by jillann13 

 

Britt N Adam we are getting married here april 24th!!! we were wondering aobut the photographer too? with the package, which photographer at the resort is the best? any help from anyone would be great Jill

We had Anel as did many people on this thread and I highly recommend her! She was so awesome to work with and her pictures are just to die for! People still talk about our pictures and say that we would have paid ALOT of money to get what she did here in Houston. 

Here is a link to my facebook album with all the pics from her. 

https://www.facebook.com/savanahcooper/media_set?set=a.790269831946.2135365.118502317&type=3

Originally Posted by DWB2B2014 

 

Fantastic! Thanks! I am busy looking at what flower options to use now.Do they show what colors are available? I have one catalog from them but alot have lillies in it and I found out one of my bridesmaids is allergic to lillies  

Oh no!! yes, alot of them did have lillies - I'm sure if you told them about the allergy they could do a flower that was equal in price!

Originally Posted by DWB2B2014 

 

What I was recommended to do to save money on centrepieces is to reuse the bridesmaids bouquets. I bought matching chargers and will get vases. As you only have an MoH may not work so well for you but is a thought.

They have vases there you can use! They put them out on our guest book table for us for all the bouquets without us asking and didn't charge us. 

If you stick with bouquets out of the catalog they are very reasonably priced. Ours were $65 each and we only had to buy 3 because 2 of them were included with the ultimate package. They can change the colors of the flowers up if they don't match your color scheme - as long as they are the same flowers, it's the same price. 

You can kind of see the vases in this pic... 

Originally Posted by emmyss 

 

I was just quoted US$1701 for having our reception go for an extra 2 hours for 45 quests. According to Lorena the quote includes the open bar + tax + service fee for the extra two hours. I am not impressed by the ridiculous amount, considering that we are staying at on ALL-INCLUSIVE... 

 

Did anyone extend their reception? and if so, was it worth it to pay US$1701 for it?

 

Thank you, 

 

Emmy 

And that price probably doesn't include the DJ either! Depending on what time your reception is, you could go to Desires afterwards. If it's after 10 there is music playing - just announce it as you are all leaving so all your guests no to go there. There's also the lobby bar for everyone to hang out afterwards. I wouldn't pay that much when there are 2 other places for everyone to go have drinks

Originally Posted by Sabrina26 

 

Also anyone have any comments on the makeup artists at resort? Or photos of your makeup?

l

oved my makeup and hair! Perla did both for me.  I had to pay extra for the eyelashes though.

Originally Posted by Jendev 

 

 

You ordered the square linens for the round tables? Is that what you mean? Thanks!

yup! Here's a pic so you can see how it looked. 

Originally Posted by Vika Yakovleva 

 

Hi Girls, sorry its been forever since ive been on here, work has been keeping me busy. I finally got my slideshow from anel...enjoy! btw, wedding was amazing, none of you should even worry one bit, the wedding team at dreams is sensational, went above and beyond my expectations!!!!!

http://280412masotto.dreamsriveriacancun.adventurephotos.com.mx/#/masotto/

absolutely beautiful!!!! Some of the best pictures I've seen!